No Borders: Applied Textiles

Making thread wraps to explore colour combinations

I was very pleased and excited to be back with the No Borders art group again this morning. I have worked with them on a number of projects over the past couple of years and I always enjoy our sessions as the group is so positive and enthusiastic, it's really inspiring. I was also really touched as one of the participants said she was really excited I was working with them again as she loved textiles and the work we'd done before. The last project I worked on them with culminated in a hanging sculpture that was shown in Prism Arts Studio as part of C-Art 2014.

Hanging sculpture from last sessions

Detail

For this block of sessions we are looking at applied textiles, the title is deliberately a bit vague so that the group can pretty much do what they want! I took in lots of samples and we discussed our previous work together and what the group would like to do. They decided on individual projects and I was pleased that they all had ideas about what they wanted to do, I'm looking forward to seeing how these ideas develop as the project progresses. We also discussed colour and how it can represent different moods, feelings and ideas.

Looking at samples

Using pastels to explore colour

Pastel colour page

After our discussion (and a nice cup of tea) we started to look at the colours we would like to work with. I began by asking the participants to experiment with putting together colours that they liked in different proportions and to think about what mood this created. We used pastels so that the colours could be blended and different shades and tones created. As always everyone had a very different approach and it was interesting to see how people's personalities and preferences came out in this activity.

Thread wraps exploring colour combinations

Thread wraps exploring colour combinations

Thread wraps exploring colour combinations

We then moved on to making thread wraps using our pastel colour sheets as a starting point. I really like this activity as it is a different way of playing around with colour and it is a good way to explore how colours work together. It's also quite therapeutic and relaxing which allows us to have discussions about our ideas at the same time. Once again the individual characters shone through in the finished thread wraps, in not just the colour choices but the methods too. I'm really looking forward to next week and seeing how the work takes shape.

Pastel colour pages

Pastel colour pages

Pastel colour pages

Pastel colour pages